False Positives
by princessofthedeadsheep
Summary: It was the magical object he hated the most. It wasn't the worst, not by a long shot, but it always brought him such heartache.


**Since people are apparently dying for another RotG fic, I decided I'd give this idea a whirl. Hopefully I'll also have a companion piece to _Not A Perfect Mother_ eventually, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope myself because it's been a bitch and a half to write. Don't expect too much from this one, it's not meant to be a masterpiece. **

It was the magical object he hated the most. It wasn't the worst, not by a long shot, but it always brought him such heartache. The Snow Queen kept it in her realm and Jack had always felt himself drawn to the golden framed window. It was large, wider than his staff if he moved it in any direction, though its frame was thin and plain. Where there should have been glass there was a film like substance that flowed like water.

The first time he had ever seen it, ever looked at its surface while waiting for the Snow Queen, it had shown him a picture of the Man in the Moon. He hadn't known that at the time, didn't even know who that was, but it took his breath away and made his loneliness leave, flowing away with the magic. He'd been mesmerized, walked forward, his hand reaching out to touch it.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a voice said from behind him. He'd turned to find the Snow Queen giving him a sad smile. Jack found himself blushing a bit as he got his first look at the Snow Queen, who couldn't have been older than sixteen when she became a spirit herself. She was attractive in a way Jack didn't understand, and he found he liked to see the way her hair and dress sparkled like the snow they both brought. She gestured towards the window, "Even the simplest things can be dangerous if they aren't understood," she said.

She'd pulled him away then, through the room decorated with magical objects and away toward a more neutral room to speak to him as they'd intended to do. Jack barely managed to focus as they talked about the weather patterns and wind currents. His mind kept going back to the window, and from the Snow Queen's sympathetic looks she knew it as well.

"It doesn't do to dwell on the things which hurt us," she warned him.

"It didn't hurt me," he argued, but the Snow Queen shook her head.

"It did. It manipulated your feelings and made you long to have what it knows is unattainable to you. That's what it does." Her gray eyes looked into his blue ones and he felt like he was being analyzed by the heart of the storms he's created before. "That window has a purpose, Jack, but it is a dangerous thing to allow yourself to become obsessed with. Do not let it take you over. Its promises are false."

"Why do you have it?" he asked, "If it's so dangerous?"

"It's dangerous in the wrong hands, yes, but it serves a purpose. It was made not to bring harm, but to bring acceptance. Whether or not it does, well, that is a question only its users can answer. It's best to keep it from your mind, Jack Frost."

She sent him away that day with kindness, since he had been neglecting his duties too long. She reminded him to return when the time came again for them to consult. Every time he'd seen it since then, it had shown him that same picture, but this time... this time it showed something else entirely.

There was a girl on the other side of it, long brown hair and wide brown eyes. His little sister. Jack was reaching towards it before he realized what he was doing. The magic flared as he touched it, flying up around him like a billowing curtain. He was aware for only a second more before the magic seeped into his mind and he lost consciousness.

RotGRotGRotGRotG

"Jack! Emma!" there was a shout as the two children lay panting by the side of the lake. Both looked up to see their mother racing towards them. "Oh my goodness, are you two alright?"

"We're fine, Ma," Jack gave her a strained smile. "Emma ended up on some thin ice but I got her off in time."

"Thank our Lord," she murmured, pulling her children into a hug. "Into the house now, both or you. You'll warm up by the fire and help me with dinner."

There was a strange feeling of wrongness that settled over the scene, Jack thought, but he was so happy that he and Emma were alive, he ignored it.

Jack and Emma played together all the time. Jack didn't mind having Emma following him around- he loved her, all time with his little sister was precious. Her laughter made him feel complete, even when it was directed at him.

"Jack has a cr-ush, Jack has a cr-ush!" Emma sing songed her way into the house after their mother called them in for dinner.

"Be quiet Emma!" Jack hissed, unable to look anyone in the eye.

"Oh, got your eye on a cute girl Jack?" his father teased. Jack just shrugged.

"Jack is in love with Bethany!" Emma squealed.

"I am not!" Jack's voice pitched high as he said it.

"The Blacksmith's girl, eh?" his father asked, "She's a fine child."

"A hard worker too. You could do worse," his mother told him.

"It's not like I've proposed to her Ma!" Jack looked at his mother in shock and disbelief.

"You are getting older Jack. It's something to consider. You'll be wanting a wife that can help you work and strong enough to bear good children." Jack's father looked at him calmly. "She'd be a good wife, given a few years."

The wedding bells rang out as Bethany took his hand and the town showered rice over their forms. Jack laughed merrily and looked into his wife's brilliant blue eyes. Something niggled in the back of his mind... but he was so happy.

"Congratulations Jack!" Emma squealed. A teenager herself now, Emma was blossoming beautifully into adulthood, a natural beauty that had taken the breath from many a young man in the town. Emma was quite a popular girl, and Jack new she'd be able to make a good match when she married.

"Thanks Emma," Jack said with a grin, "give it a few years and I'll be attending your wedding, Heavens forbid." Emma laughed at him.

"Better give us some more family," she waggled her finger at him, "I know our parents are dying for grandchildren." Jack blushed and suddenly Bethany was at his side.

"Jack, it's time to head to our new home," Bethany said.

"Take care of my brother Beth," Emma said to his wife.

"I promise," Bethany said. Jack and Bethany got into a carriage which took them to their new home. Jack had built it himself, with the help of his father and father-in-law. They settled inside for the first night of marriage. For a moment, the wrongness swelled up, compelling Jack to say something.

"It feels like I proposed to you yesterday," Jack said.

"I suppose it does," she agreed, "time truly does fly when you are having fun." She smiled at him, and he ignored that immediate feeling of wrongness until it died down again.

They had a house full of children, with brown eyes and stringy brown hair. Bethany laughed with their children, and they all were so cheerful, but the wrongness increased. The children began to run together, faces and names had no meaning. The laughter blurred together until it began to die voice by voice, until only Bethany's voice was there.

"We've lived a good life, Jack."

"Jack," another voice called, "It's time to come back now." The wrongness pulsed like pain through his body which was old which was young which was cold which was warm which breathed which did not and a pulse beat and it did not-

Jack tumbled out of the window and fell flat in front of the Snow Queen.

"I was afraid you'd gotten lost in there," the Snow Queen leaned down in front of him but did not touch him. "Are you well?"

Jack was crying, tears pouring down his face as he shuddered with pain. Ice began to swirl out beyond his body, but the Snow Queen disintegrated it with merely a wave of her hand. "It takes a moment for the process to release you, and the emotional pain, I imagine, will be residual." She stood in silence, in the finery of her realm, as Jack pulled himself together. She drew him to sit away from the window, in another room. Her voice softened some.

"I told you it was a dangerous thing. Grief and loneliness create all sorts of impossible wishes. It does no good to dwell on the impossible."

"Wh-what was that?" Jack asked.

"The window shows you an impossible thing you desire. For you- a future, a life you did not have. Some find it brings them peace, to see what you desire. Most do not. I did warn you, Jack. It does not do to dwell on that which you've lost. You may rest here until you have regained yourself," she said, drawing away. He watched her go, his chest heaving with air he no longer needed as he thought of a life he'd never had the chance to have.

As he left the window rippled, and he saw Emma's face again, but grown now, a child in her arms. Jack stumbled away and cursed.


End file.
